I’m no budding photographer, but like many people, I do love the convenience of capturing what I want when I want. However, despite finding my iPhone’s camera feature being incredibly handy it can get a little boring. You see, I’m a big fan of instant photography and was very sad to see the demise of the Polaroid and cameras alike. What I loved about them, particularly Polaroid cameras were the reddish tints, grainy prints and dark edges. It gave your photographs so much more personality than those found today on Facebook. It’s hard to explain what it is, but it’s like when you’re having a clear out at home and you find an old photo of your parents from the 70s, there’s something instantly hypnotic about it. Don’t get me wrong, digital cameras are fantastic in their own right. The ability to take hundreds of photographs, preview, edit and upload them to the web in seconds is just a few reasons why film photography has been left dead, not to mention it’s a hell of a lot cheaper. What I want though is something that gives me the quality and personality of Polaroid and the convenience of digital.

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Which is best... iPhone or Blackberry?

Our love for our smartphones has led to two quite cringeworthy nicknames “iNat and Katieberry”. Which is best though? Is it my lovely white 16gb iphone 3GS or is it Katie’s sexy Blackberry curve? We aren’t the only ones to be having this debate, the internet is littered with articles and forums where other smartphone users have either argued their case or sought advice from other users before making that all important purchasing decision.

In terms of popularity, Research in Motion, the company behind the Blackberry phone, shifted 382,000 handsets in Q3 2009, compared to 254,000 iPhones sold by Apple.

Katie and I have given this some serious thought – she has tried to persuade me (even through some rap songs) but im pretty convinced that my iPhone beats her Blackberry curve hands down!… Over to you Katie… Read more…

Call to actions. They are those pesky things that designers hate because the client always wants them bigger… and the designer wants it to be tucked away so the masterpiece he/she has created won’t be ruined by commercialism. But what if the advert itself was the call to action… and by simply taking a picture of the advert you can automatically be connected to a website where you can get more information or call a number where you can give your details and more information.

Sound daft? Well believe it or not those clever people at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed a mobile phone app for iPhone and Android that turns a multitude of items; from DVD and CD covers to Film Posters and Adverts into call to actions… so the design is the response device! Designers rejoice!

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If someone said to me that I can use my phone to help me with my typography… I’d have assumed they were referring to the ability to call up a friend who was a typographer or who has a great deal of experience in crafting type.

What they’d really mean is that I could download the Typography App for the IPhone, which has has several useful features and resources for designers, including a visual type anatomy glossary, a font size ruler, an em calculator, and enough content to fill a 60-page book.

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It’s staring at me on the arm of the sofa but I have promised that I won’t use it. I even turned it face down so I am not tempted to check my Facebook to see who has commented on my status in the last fifteen minutes, or to download the “Fish Tycoon” application I have heard my friend talking about. You can nurture and breed your own fish then sell them for virtual money. Truth is I hate fish, but the iPhone application looks fun…!!

An addiction?
Needless to say, my iPhone has become a worrying addiction – and the application store on iTunes is starting to cost me a lot of money! The store is what really makes the iPhone so unique and is the biggest advancement in mobile technology in recent years. It’s accessible via iTunes and holds over 25,000 applications ranging from the really useful to the completely pointless and bizarre. Read more…

Research conducted by the leading Market Research agency GfK NOP and Limbo revealed that iPhone users are more than twice as likely as non-iPhone users to browse the mobile web on their phone. And they are more than three times as likely to use location-based services, including maps, restaurant locators and friend finders.

As the popularity of GPS and web enabled phones increases, more and more applications are being created that allow people to make connections and interact with the world (and brands) in ways they never imagined. Many of these new applications are a Marketer’s dream; and whilst many are currently not available in the UK, it’s useful to see what the future holds and highlight the possibilities that GPS and web enabled phones open up to Brands and Companies alike.

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